Hybrid quintessential inflation

A model is presented in which a single scalar field is responsible for both primordial inflation at early times and then dark energy at late times. This field is coupled to a second scalar field which becomes unstable and starts to oscillate after primordial inflation, thus driving a reheating phase that can create a high post-inflation temperature. This model easily avoids overproduction of gravity waves, which is a problem in the original quintessential inflation model in which reheating occurs via gravitational particle production.     

Gravitational particle production in massive chaotic inflation and the moduli problem

Particle production from vacuum fluctuations during inflation is briefly revisited. The moduli problem occurring with light particles produced at the end of inflation is addressed, namely, the fact that some results are in disagreement with nucleosynthesis constrains. A universal solution to this problem is found which leads to reasonable reheating temperatures in all cases. It invokes the assumption that, immediately after inflation, the moduli evolve like nonrelativistic matter. The assumption is justified in the context of massive chaotic inflation where, at the end of inflation, the Universe evolves as if it were matter dominated.     

Baryon number generation in a flipped SU(5) × U(1) model

We consider the possibilities for generating a baryon asymmetry in the early universe in a flipped SU(5) × U(1) model inspired by the superstring. Depending on the temperature of the radiation background after inflation we can distinguish between two scenarios for baryogenesis: (1) after reheating the original SU(5) × U(1) symmetry is restored, or there was no inflation at all; (2) reheating after inflation is rather weak and SU(5) × U(1) is broken. In either case the asymmetry is generated by the out-of-equilibrium decays of a massive SU(3) × SU(2) × U(1) singlet field φ_m. In the flipped SU(5) × U(1) model, gauge symmetry breaking is triggered by strong coupling phenomena, and is in general accompanied by the production of entropy. We examine constraints on the reheating temperature and the strong coupling scale in each of the scenarios.     

Non-thermal leptogenesis and baryon asymmetry in different neutrino mass models

In the present work we study non-thermal leptogenesis and baryon asymmetry in the universe in different neutrino mass models discussed recently. For each model we obtain a formula relating the reheating temperature after inflation to the inflaton mass. It is shown that all but four cases are excluded and that in the cases which survive the inflaton mass and the reheating temperature after inflation are bounded from below and from above.     

Stochastic background of gravitational waves from hybrid preheating

The process of reheating the Universe after hybrid inflation is extremely violent. It proceeds through the nucleation and subsequent collision of large concentrations of energy density in bubblelike structures, which generate a significant fraction of energy in the form of gravitational waves. We study the power spectrum of the stochastic background of gravitational waves produced at reheating after hybrid inflation. We find that the amplitude could be significant for high-scale models, although the typical frequencies are well beyond what could be reached by planned gravitational wave observatories. On the other hand, low-scale models could still produce a detectable stochastic background at frequencies accessible to those detectors. The discovery of such a background would open a new window into the very early Universe.     

Quintessential inflation at low reheating temperatures

We have tested some simple quintessential inflation models, imposing the requirement that they match with the recent observational data provided by the BICEP and Planck team and leading to a reheating temperature, which is obtained via gravitational particle production after inflation, supporting the nucleosynthesis success. Moreover, for the models coming from supergravity one needs to demand low temperatures in order to avoid problems such as the gravitino overproduction or the gravitational production of moduli fields, which are obtained only when the reheating temperature is due to the production of massless particles with a coupling constant very close to its conformal value.     

More flipped SU(5)×U(1) baryosynthesis

We supplement a previous discussion of baryosynthesis in flipped SU(5)×U(1) GUTs by including (1) the large incoherent field energy density which is likely SU(5) is broken, and (2) the possibility of additional Higgs triplet fields suggested by four dimensional string model-building. We consider strong (weak) reheating scenarios in which the Universe is (is not) SU(5) symmetric after inflation. We find an adequate baryon asymmetry subsequent to strong reheating, whatever the number of Higgs triplets (although beware of possible difficulties with quasi-stable relic particles), whereas weak reheating requires at least two Higgs triplets.     

Reheating a multi-throat universe by brane motion

We propose a mechanism of reheating after inflation in multi-throat scenarios of warped extra dimensions. Validity of an effective field theory on the standard model (SM) brane requires that the position of the SM brane during inflation be different from the position after inflation. The latter is supposed to be near the tip of the SM throat but the former is not. After inflation, when the Hubble expansion rate becomes sufficiently low, the SM brane starts moving towards the tip and eventually oscillates. The SM fields are excited by the brane motion and the universe is reheated. Since interaction between the brane position modulus and the SM fields is suppressed only by the local string scale, the modulus effectively decays into the SM fields.     

Possibility of observable amount of gravitational waves from inflation

The curvaton and inhomogeneous reheating scenarios for the generation of the cosmological curvature perturbation on large scales represent an alternative to the standard slow-roll scenario. The basic assumption of these mechanisms is that the initial curvature perturbation due to the inflaton field is negligible. This is usually attained by lowering the energy scale of inflation, thereby concluding that the amount of gravitational waves produced during inflation is highly suppressed. We show that the curvaton and inhomogeneous reheating scenarios are compatible with a level of gravity-wave fluctuations which may well be observed in future satellite experiments.     

Reheating and leptogenesis in a SUGRA inspired brane inflation

We have studied extensively phenomenological implications in a specific model of brane inflation driven by background supergravity (Choudhury and Pal, 2011) [1], via thermal history of the universe and leptogenesis pertaining to the particle physics phenomenology of the early universe. Using the one loop corrected inflationary potential we have investigated for the analytical expression as well as the numerical estimation for brane reheating temperature for standard model particles. This results in some novel features of reheating from this type of inflation which have serious implications in the production of heavy Majorana neutrinos needed for leptogenesis through the reheating temperature. We have also derived the expressions for the gravitino abundance during reheating and radiation dominated era. We have further estimated different parameters at the epoch of phase transition and revealed their salient features. At the end we have explicitly given an estimate of the amount of CP violation through the effective CP phase which is related to baryon asymmetry as well as gravitino dark matter abundance.     

Reheating in tachyonic inflationary models: Effects on the large scale curvature perturbations

We investigate the problem of perturbative reheating and its effects on the evolution of the curvature perturbations in tachyonic inflationary models. We derive the equations governing the evolution of the scalar perturbations for a system consisting of a tachyon and a perfect fluid. Assuming the perfect fluid to be radiation, we solve the coupled equations for the system numerically and study the evolution of the perturbations from the sub-Hubble to the super-Hubble scales. In particular, we analyze the effects of the transition from tachyon driven inflation to the radiation dominated epoch on the evolution of the large scale curvature and non-adiabatic pressure perturbations. We consider two different potentials to describe the tachyon and study the effects of two possible types of decay of the tachyon into radiation. We plot the spectrum of curvature perturbations at the end of inflation as well as at the early stages of the radiation dominated epoch. We find that reheating does not affect the amplitude of the curvature perturbations in any of these cases. These results corroborate similar conclusions that have been arrived at earlier based on the study of the evolution of the perturbations in the super-Hubble limit. We illustrate that, before the transition to the radiation dominated epoch, the relative non-adiabatic pressure perturbation between the tachyon and radiation decays in a fashion very similar to that of the intrinsic entropy perturbation associated with the tachyon. Moreover, we show that, after the transition, the relative non-adiabatic pressure perturbation dies down extremely rapidly during the early stages of the radiation dominated epoch. It is these behavior which ensure that the amplitude of the curvature perturbations remain unaffected during reheating. We also discuss the corresponding results for the popular chaotic inflation model in the case of the canonical scalar field.     

Reheating and entropy perturbations in fibre inflation

We study reheating in some one and two field realizations of fibre inflation.We find that reheating begins with a phase of preheating in which long wavelength fluctuation modes are excited.In two field models there is a danger that the parametric amplification of infrared fluctuations in the second scalar field-associated with an entropy mode-might induce an instability of the curvature fluctuations.We show that,at least in the models we consider,the entropy mode has a sufficiently large mass to prevent this instability.Hence,from the point of view of reheating the models we consider are well-behaved.     

Cosmology with rolling tachyon

We examine the possibility of rolling tachyon to play the dual role of inflaton at early epochs and dark matter at late times. We argue that enough inflation can be generated with the rolling tachyon either by invoking the large number of branes or brane world assisted inflation. However, reheating is problematic in this model. On leave from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 110 025, India     

Baryon asymmetry of the universe from evaporation of primordial black holes

The process of baryogenesis through evaporation of black holes formed at the end of the inflation phase is considered. The increase in black hole mass due to accretion from the surrounding radiation after reheating is taken into account. It is shown that the influence of the accretion on the baryogenesis is important only in the case where the initial values of black hole mass are larger than ～10⁴ g. The behavior of the calculated baryon asymmetry as a function of model parameters is studied.     

Low reheating temperature and the visible sterile neutrino

We present here a scenario, based on a low reheating temperature T(R)<100 MeV at the end of (the last episode of) inflation, in which the coupling of sterile neutrinos to active neutrinos can be as large as experimental bounds permit (thus making this neutrino "visible" in future experiments). In previous models this coupling was forced to be very small to prevent a cosmological overabundance of sterile neutrinos. Here the abundance depends on how low the reheating temperature is. For example, the sterile neutrino required by the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector result may not have any cosmological problem within our scenario.     

Daemon decay and inflation

Quantum tunneling in Reissner–Nordström geometry is studied and the tunneling rate is determined. A possible scenario for cosmic inflation, followed by reheating phases and subsequent radiation-domination expansion, is proposed.     

Gravitational Scalar-Driving Inflation Ⅱ

In the given scalar-tensor theory of gravity, the gravitational scalar ф plays the role of inflaton field, the cosmological function λ(ф) together with the coupling function ω(ф) provides a double-well potential for the motion of ф. After inflation, the universe expands according to 2/3 power law different from the Friedmann cosmology. There is no reheating and there is no need of reheating. The model predicts consistency between the Jeans mass and the mass of galaxies.     

Trapped quintessential inflation

Quintessential inflation is studied using a string modulus as the inflaton–quintessence field. The modulus begins its evolution at the steep part of its scalar potential, which is due to non-perturbative effects (e.g. gaugino condensation). It is assumed that the modulus crosses an enhanced symmetry point (ESP) in field space. Particle production at the ESP temporarily traps the modulus resulting in a brief period of inflation. More inflation follows, due to the flatness of the potential, since the ESP generates either an extremum (maximum or minimum) or a flat inflection point in the scalar potential. Eventually, the potential becomes steep again and inflation is terminated. After reheating the modulus freezes due to cosmological friction at a large value, such that its scalar potential is dominated by contributions due to fluxes in the extra dimensions or other effects. The modulus remains frozen until the present, when it can become quintessence and account for the dark energy necessary to explain the observed accelerated expansion.     

Resonant production of topological defects

We describe a novel phenomenon in which vortices are produced due to resonant oscillations of a scalar field which is driven by a periodically varying temperature T, with T remaining much below the critical temperature T(c). Also, in a rapid heating of a localized region to a temperature below T(c), far separated vortex and antivortex can form. We compare our results with recent models of defect production during reheating after inflation. We also discuss possible experimental tests of our predictions of topological defect production without ever going through a phase transition.     

Primordial two-component maximally symmetric inflation

We propose a two-component inflation model, based on maximally symmetric supergravity, where the scales of reheating and the inflation potential at the origin are decoupled. This is possible because of the second-order phase transition from SU(5) to SU(3)×SU(2)×U(1) that takes place when φ?φ_c<φ₀, when φ₀?O(M) is the value of the inflation at the global minimum, and leads to a reheating temperature T_R?(10¹⁵–10¹⁶) GeV. This makes it possible to generate baryon asymmetry in the conventional way without any conflict with experimental data on proton lifetime. The mass of the gravitinos is $\text{m}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>3</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{?10}{}^{12}\text{GeV}$, thus avoiding the gravitino problem. Monopoles are diluted by residual inflation in the broken phase below the cosmological bounds if φ_c?0.3M.